On a season-best five-game winning streak, the Phoenix Mercury will be out to continue their revival when they play host to the defending champion New York Liberty on Friday.
The most prestigious victory in their streak came June 19 at New York when Monique Akoa Makani scored a team-high 21 points and Alyssa Thomas delivered 18 points with 15 rebounds.
The Mercury (11-4) shot just 41.7 percent from the floor in the victory, but won with their defense that turned 20 New York turnovers into 19 points.
Phoenix’s most recent victory came Saturday when the offense grabbed the attention in a 107-86 road win over the Chicago Sky. That topped the Mercury’s previous season-high of 94 points in a home victory over the Sky on May 27.
Sami Whitcomb scored a team-high 17 points off the bench for Phoenix on Saturday and has three of her five double-digit scoring games in the last three contests.
“The belief is 100 percent there,” Whitcomb said of the team’s impressive start after finishing below .500 in each of the past three seasons. “We’re trying to chip away every single day. We’re trying to focus on us and not really worrying about anything else.”
Since missing five consecutive games when the calendar flipped from May to June, Thomas has averaged 13.6 points with 9.8 assists and 6.8 rebounds over the past five games.
The Liberty (11-3) arrive after earning an 81-78 road victory over the Golden State Valkyries on Wednesday, but they have lost three of five following a 9-0 start.
Breanna Stewart scored 23 points with 10 rebounds against the Valkyries and Kennedy Burke had 20 points off the bench. Sabrina Ionescu scored 11 points, but was just 1 of 7 from 3-point range in her Bay Area homecoming.
“We’re resilient,” Stewart said. “There’s a lot of things that are happening on our team and we continue to fight through it no matter who’s on the floor.”
Ionescu was just 1 of 10 from long distance in last week’s home loss to Phoenix, which makes her 2 of 17 (11.8 percent) on 3-point attempts in the past two games while playing through a neck injury. She is shooting a career-low 31.8 percent from distance.
Jonquel Jones (12.1 points, 9.6 rebounds per game) has missed the past two games for New York with a right ankle sprain and is expected to miss another month.
–Field Level Media
